A handmade gift business has ensured children in Tayside have presents to give their mothers this weekend by providing more than 600 free keyrings.
Dundee firm Made at 94 gave the wooden keyrings to nurseries and childminders in the city, so they could be personalised by little ones and given as Mother’s Day gifts.
As part of a series of community projects Made at 94 owners Kevin and Sam Matthew decided they wanted to supply a number of resources for youngsters to bring back a bit of joy and creativity after the struggles of the coronavirus pandemic.
Kevin said: “Our main objective at the start of the year was to inspire creativity and positivity throughout children across Tayside and Angus and to do that we decided we would design craft projects and then donate these resources for children to make gifts and get creative whilst at nursery, playgroup or another community setting.
“We want to help community groups by giving them the resources and tools to inspire and add a bit of joy in the minds of their children.
“It is a great way for us to give back to the community and also allow children from a variety of backgrounds to give gifts to their loved ones.
“To start with we targeted Valentine’s Day and had over 200 children taking part in decorating wooden heart shaped fridge magnets.
“We had such a good response and we expected to have around 500 children taking part in the Mother’s Day event.
“However with children back at nurseries we actually had 630 kids taking part in making key rings for their loved ones this week.
“We made up little packs for each of the children which included the wooden gift then lots of little embellishments and a sheet which provided ideas of what they could create.
“We already have plans for further projects for special occasions with the next being Easter and then Father’s Day. We originally aimed to reach 1000 children by the end of the year but I think we are on target to reach that within the first half of the year which is fantastic.”
The handmade gifts company ensured locals could also provide gifts despite possible financial struggles at Christmas by offering surplus stock to locals for free.
Near the start of lockdown in May 2020 the pair also created the shoelace challenge, providing parents with free wooden shoe templates to help teach their children to tie their own laces and allowed them to get creative by colouring the template in too.
Kevin added: “As a family business we want to help people in any way that is possible for us to do.”